Fernando Ramos: As Ethereal as Painting

BY JAY BAUTISTA

Tall Tarlac Tales: Recent Works of Herrera, Ramos and Yokte

(Second of Three Parts)
 

Mind Disaster

Fernando Ramos has dealt with his everyday musings in the most ethereal manner. Through his visual style as evident in these recent works, he skims through various stories applying appropriate metaphors in them.   

Done in vertical monolith they are equally divided into two parts. The upper portion the materiality dictates whatever mood Ramos is in depending on what he perceives. Ramos believes artists were blessed with talents as they have a responsibility to perform in society. Facilitating texture he uses palette knife and rodela enabling every stroke as different like the different days where Ramos worked on his pieces. These pieces appear to be more durable, almost rendered in a dream that only Ramos can comprehend their symbolical meanings; combining figurative with his abstraction.

His paintings are also sensuous variations of collective narratives, memories and dreams. Veering to the contemplative, each color contemplates on hindrances and trials. The fascination in metal-like ground and surface in his works is evident, rusted and stained in time. It is metaphorical depiction of this world we live in is paralleled to a slowly decaying, human body that is deteriorating and will turn back into nature’s dust--our ashes.

Her Music Lives On

Her Music Lives On Series are tributes to a departed mother, musician, artist and  friend. Though her life ended, she still remains to be an inspiration among people who shared her life with. Her existence is a symbolical representation of freedom, happiness and beauty. The combination of flower petals, piano keys, umbrella, sunrise and her silhouette narrates who she is. Her music lives on as her spirit continued to guiding Ramos of becoming a great person and artist.

Similar to Herrera, Ramos favors using that circular motion going on and depending on it could mean often equated with the ongoing struggle as an artist. Ramos often uses that circular motion going on which could represent the and depending on it could mean often equated with. Ramos themes run through the autobiographical and the social repercussions marked by constant interaction with people he interacts.

A Ramos canvas usually starts with dots, endless point by point rendition displaying persistence and insistence of something must be done. The swirling circular lines with modeling paste with course. Then color form figure. Ramos strength is his being a colorist often associating them with the emotions of his subjects. Staples are red, oranges, metallic gold and silver.

Cyber Magdalene Series is a black and white depiction of a new trending way of life among prostitutes. It’s the women's anatomy that spoils man's eye as they sell their naked bodies online a picture of immorality and moral degradation among women making this easy money making job.   

An old favorite theme of Ramos is clowns as in The Entertainer Series. These are portraits of a woman who chose to be an entertainer like a clown that is capable of playing one's emotion. Imparting short moment of happiness to people and sometimes selling their own flesh in exchange of money, behind those smiles concealed the loneliness they felt inside their heart. Some people consider them scented rags as plague of society--sharing their addictive beauty among men who are teased by their smell like a wild flower.

Always the hopeful as seen in the silver aluminum strings, Ramos believes in second chances and that we should make do of what we have before everything is gone. The Last String Series are about man's loneliest days spent with his strings. His chords longs for serendipity. A narrative of love and despair, music is played though there is coldness of his voice whispered in the inevitable. Though his last strings he is saving his high hopes that one day will find another reason to love and stay.

Starting with a study or a just a sketch Ramos builds up rhythm like a seasoned jazz player, he improvises yet digs in deeper, straining his modeling paste-in-sand combination. He then fixes silver or gold adding glow to the under paint most likely after he stains the metal layer of his composition. The hardest part is the layering and coursing with texture.

Whether he renders realist strokes or veers into abstraction transparency of forms and solidity of shapes define the quintessential Ramos. Often employing rhythm and harmony in texture his dimensions draws a thin line in between softness and harshness of rendition yet they carefully controlled and it varies in a certain points to another simply not because they are nice to look at but because they are conceived to do so.   

Burn Out Series

Burn out Series is a combination of rusty and golden color. Our naïve minds become filthy because of constant exposure to struggles in life. No matter how brilliant we are we have our limitations. These series are the most evocative, a picture of psychological stress, haunted by man’s emotional and mental exhaustion.it reflects the feeling of failure to gain balance resulting to a total wreck and havoc on human health. A burning fire of consistent depression and destruction that disturbs human brain, it is a portrait of a human condition suffering from getting emotionally tired and numb.

Not all are serious and political for Ramos. As one becomes hardened through time as seen in the stone finish, one still clings to that someone as seen in Hopeless Romantic Series. It narrates man's voiceless inner self, unable to express what and how he feels. He often imagines that he plays a saxophone and serenading. his music pampers visual imagery of his ideal woman—a life live in world of fantasy and a sound of romance indulge within his imagination. Rose petals add mush to the already decorated setting.

Hopeless Romantic Series

His paintings are also sensuous variations of collective narratives, memories and dreams. The fascination in metal-like ground and surface in his works is evident, rusted and stained in time. It is metaphorical depiction of this world we live in is paralleled to a slowly decaying, human body that is deteriorating and will turn back into nature’s dust--our ashes.

Ramos moves freely inside the painting as he probes his inner self and explore contours and variations of colors, paraphrasing the world and beyond in less fanciful embellishment or distortion.

Judeo Herrera: Pain, Pleasure and Punditry

Tall Tarlac Tales: Recent Works of Herrera, Ramos and Yokte

Jay Bautista

(First of three parts) 

Ginintuang Pangarap Series

Among the proud eight rays of the Philippine sun in our flag Tarlac has always been at the forefront of our socio-political and economic history. With its strategic geographic location it is now has a unique place given the expressways and nearness to Clark, which is projected to be a bustling green city of the future.

Most of the time Tarlac is simply relegated as a mere stopover to eat or take a leak on your way up to the North; for most people it is that long stretch of McArthur Hi-way or mostly Hacienda Luisita. Despite the concrete structures, dams and floodway dikes, the city is bland as the lahar desert remnant of the Mt. Pinatubo fury of 1991. Compared to nearby provinces Tarlac has more artists and practitioners than all the artists in the north combined. Having the only fine arts institution, it is also home to award winning artists and art practitioners. Yet it is void of art spaces as venues of the art reflecting the soul of its community.


With the bareness of the physical and cultural landscape the disparity in life can be from within. This is where Bukal intervenes as it deems to create that critical dialogue of what is Tarlac for those who wish to be part of the conversation. Bukal meaning “boiling or in the verge of something,” in the local parlance, three artists step up the plate and offer some of the purest and relevance expressions emanating here.

Judeo Herrera: Pain, Pleasure and Punditry

Anatomy has always been the true test for an artist; how well versed he draws parts of the human body to every viewer’s appreciation or fellow artists’ respect. How he uses this skill to his advantage marks his brilliance. Judeo Herrera could have easily given to the lure of enticing erotica or commercial portraiture to his advantage however he chose to paint only the essentials—face, arms and limb--contextualizing them in a quagmire of fiery pegs against the repeating cycle of poverty of the spirit. With these images he captures the purest emotions in a visual style simulating the figurative with the textured abstract.

No Way Out

One could easily get unease or even slighted in Herrera pieces. In his Bukal Series, he focused on the face as the foreground of deep sadness, anger and anguish. For Herrera knows his timing and rhythm well like a director on cue he captures the moment, the turning point his subjects who at the brink of emotion, at the brim of madness and frustration in a fitting release. Without beginning or end we are led to a hypnotic whirlpool of desperation in Lulong, anxiety in Aaahh and even eminent death 
such as  

Hand Gesture Series

Huling Hantungan. No Way Out is a brutal climax that initiated from isolation and rootlessness. How the eyes shut by instinct with the hand shaped liked a gun pointed at one’s crown of consciousness. Even without sound one could hear the wailing of this hapless mother in Tama na, Sobra Na.  

Herrera starts by creating his textured base. The endless swirl of the background it is the abstraction that dictates the emotion. The intensity of his swirl, against banality of stainless gray of one’s soul, there is no beginning and ending, one could get tangled in deeply rooted helplessness.  

His brilliance lies in his astounding compositions and color combination he aptly calls the colorless soul. The colorless soul is Herrera’s take on how inner being responds to challenges. What emanates is a bluish flesh-and-bone belief of no local color. Despite the prevalence of hyperrealism Herrera abhors soft peach-like skin choosing to do it on his own steel-like colors connoting toughness and fearless numbed by what life throws at us. 

Tama Na, Sobra Na

Evoking bluish in hue a sense of solitude and serenity suggesting inner emotions, Herrera expresses his ideas and narratives in his use of figures and matching textures and gestural strokes. The warm fiery colors in the background suggest intense burning sensations, waiting and wanting to burst out.   

Honed by continuous craft and versed with experience among his art students, Herrera commands respect. If Bukal Series is pure angst then Ginintuang Panaginip Series sooth the tired battered spirit. It is Herrera’s song of redemption the calming effect exudes of better things to come. For simple folks living in the province sleep could represent many things, it is a fitting reward after a hard day’s work. It could be the act of dreaming something big. When one is golden it could mean of value.

Ginintuang Pangarap Series

For Herrera sleep is a temporary refuge and a way to momentarily escape life’s reality. One’s sleep is a blessing for we have equanimity when we are able to reset our body for the next day’s offering. We envy an infant's slumber which is a golden moment where there are no complications of the world around him. Our aspirations are often our dreams and in this refuge we somehow experience our heart's desire, yearning for that volatile false euphoria.

The intensity of his swirl is again reflected against banality in Hand Gesture Series.

Without uttering a word, even in its minutest detail, gestures convey the message in its fullest form. Certain movements suggest specific emotions. The sense of touch has a very strong psychological power that it directly impact our feelings; it can suggest a variety of sensation like a simple tap on the shoulder that tells you “well done” ; a warm hug that tells you “ I care”; an open palm that suggests “I need help” and many other. In fact the clenched fist showing solidarity has helped our current president simplify his cause for the needs of the Filipino people.   

Bukal is ongoing at the Museo ng Probinsya ng Tarlac.